


A Quiet Collapse

by BigMood2018



Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 01:02:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16253444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BigMood2018/pseuds/BigMood2018
Summary: Lou breaks the morning after Debbie leaves her for Claude.Debbie breaks the last time she sees Lou before being carted off to prison.





	A Quiet Collapse

**Author's Note:**

> Comments welcome and appreciated.

**I. Lou**

 

“I love you.”

“I can’t help you with that.” Debbie is a liar and a thief, and she is very good at both. Excellent, really. Only Danny was better. She doesn’t look back, she can’t because this charming new guy is promising her the world. She can’t look back otherwise she will hesitate and she might miss this opportunity. And so Lou watches as the love of her life walks out the door, bags all packed, and steps into some guy’s car, speeding further and further away. The last thing Lou sees is Debbie turning her back on her. She doesn't even get the chance to say a final goodbye. 

Sure they haven’t exactly been living in luxury for a while. They were just doing small cons like rigging bingo, enough to get by and not worry too much. But they were happy. If love and lust leaked out of their pores, they would have drowned in it. Lou gave Debbie everything she had. There wasn't a cell in her body that was not crazy for this criminal. Days were filled with flirtatious smiles and laughter, while skin and sweat permeated their nights. She didn’t think she could love anyone more than she loved Debbie. That was enough wasn’t it? At least Lou thought so, but maybe Debbie thought otherwise. She was an Ocean through and through, always on the lookout for a bigger score. She thinks the life they built together was not big enough for Debbie. It destroys her to think _she_ was not enough for Debbie. 

So Lou goes to find the one club they haven’t been in together. No memories to associate with her and nothing to remember her by. Tonight she just needs to lose herself to forget. So she gets piss ass drunk, plasters on her best come-hither smile, picks up a pretty girl who has nothing in common with Debbie, and fucks the hurt away. Too bad it isn’t that easy to heal a broken heart.

Lou wakes up with a throbbing headache and no memory of how she got home. There is movement beside her that is unfamiliar and suddenly it all crashes down on her. She gives a kiss on the cheek and promptly kicks the nameless girl out of the apartment (her apartment, it’s just hers now, no one else lives here anymore). Lou knows she has to abandon ship and move to a new place. She can’t bear to be here where every nook and cranny reminds her of Before. Lou takes her secret stash of cigarettes (there’s no one to hide it from now), lights up by the window, and starts drinking all the wine she can find. She looks down on the street and everyone is going about their daily life. Don’t they realize that her world stopped yesterday? Don’t they know she has to learn how to be alone all over again? She wallows in the hurt, pain, and abandonment. Let’s it consume her and cries and cries and cries. When there are no more tears left, Lou decides that this will be the last and only time she will weep for Debbie, or for anyone else. This is a lesson, Louise Miller: if you let them see you have a heart, they can break it.

She packs her heart along with everything else that could be Debbie’s in boxes and puts it in storage for now. She’ll move on, live a life After, she’s sure of that. But even now left alone and all, she still can’t bring herself to completely let go of Debbie Ocean. Like an old wound with a scar that refused to fade.

 

* * *

**II. Debbie**

 

“The defendant is found guilty on all charges.”

Debbie hangs her head. She knew this was coming, should have known that man was a snake. Claude set her up as the fall girl. How could she have been so stupid? She is an Ocean for god’s sake. And now she’s going to prison for who knows how long, but that’s not even the worst of it.

She looks at the seats behind her and there at the corner, she sees her and she gasps in surprise. Lou. She’s impossible to miss even as she tries to be inconspicuous, with her tailored suit, slicked up hair and sharp features. Cool personified even in the grime of this hall. They haven’t seen each other since she walked out a year ago. She’s surprised Lou is even here. Why did she come?

Tammy told her she was keeping Lou updated on her case, but that she seemed uninterested. Not that she can blame her after how Debbie ended things. She’s glad Lou’s and Tammy’s friendship survived through the break-up. Although Tammy was her friend first, those two got along so well they seemingly formed their own unit. She is glad, but she can also admit that she is incredibly jealous Tammy still got to have Lou (who’s fault was that, Debs?).

She loved, _still loves_ , Lou. She does. That never stopped. But a year ago the temptation of a new scam was too much, she let herself be seduced. Selfish was what she was. Too ambitious for her own good. Reckless. And in the deepest recesses of her mind she was scared, overwhelmed and felt unworthy of Lou. Wonderful Lou who suffered no fools but wore her heart on her sleeve. Debbie took the first exit available because they were going too fast; she was falling too fast, too much and all at once. Sure she’s going to prison, might even get out early if she plays her cards right. But hurting Lou? She’s going to have to live with that for the rest of her life. It’s a mistake she can’t undo, a regret she has to carry. Prison is her penance and even that is not enough.

Lou is looking at her with soft eyes and Debbie doesn’t understand how she’s still able to do that after the pain she’s caused. Debbie is trying her best to keep her composure and keep her breathing steady. Her eyes are welling up and she can’t help the tears that fall. She wishes she can hold Lou again just one last time. She remembers her last words to her and she wants to scream. Debbie wants to beg for forgiveness, beg Lou to take her back, beg forever if she has to but she knows she doesn’t deserve it, will probably never deserve it. This is a lesson, Deborah Ocean: you always hurt the ones you love.

As she’s walking away one last time, she sneaks one last glance so she can cement it in her mind. Looking at Lou again makes her want to stab her own heart just to make it stop beating. When she’s out, she doesn’t expect Lou to love her again. That’s asking too much. But she can at least try to be her partner again, in whatever capacity allowed to her. She can’t do this life without Lou, doesn’t think she can survive it. For now, she will do what she has always done; she will plan.


End file.
